In August, Microsoft announced its ID@Xbox program, which offers small independent game developers a way to self-publish their work on the company"s upcoming Xbox One console. Today, Microsoft announced a new addition to ID@Xbox which will offer developers free access to the Unity game engine and tools.
The Xbox Wire website has quotes from Chris Charla, the Director of ID@Xbox, as he talked about the reason for offering free Unity access to the program:
Many developers we talk to are using Unity today to get up and running quickly, and to be able to harness the power of hardware and realize their creative visions without spending tons of time on technology development. We thought about paying for some developers’ Unity licenses but the more we talked about it, the more we felt paying for some developers’ licenses and not others just didn’t feel right.
The Unity Xbox One port is expected to be made available sometime in 2014, according to Charla. The first games that will be released under the ID@Xbox program are also planned for launch in 2014. The company had already announced it would offer free Unity tools for developers who make Xbox 360 and Xbox One games that are directly published by Microsoft.
Source: Microsoft | Image via Unity